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When I am in Kauai i never forget, for even a second when I am sleeping, that i am in a place that is liminal.

I dont know what Kaua’i means in Hawaiian but it means “In between” to me.

I fell in love with the lava fields. They fight a war on all fronts with the Sky & the wind, the ocean herself, the mountains and the unseen magma beneath. The fields are at the transition. They are transition. Still and in motion.

You cant look directly at a lava field. They are ineffable and un-possessable even by man, even by turtle. Even by the whales, who remember everything.

Here’s what I learned. Panda Lab is staffed with extremely passionate, trained craftspeople who know their business well. They are utter photo geeks and at the same time happy to educate and help clients like myself who have no vocabulary or training. The folks at Panda took some time to check the fidelity of my colors and they even printed 2 3X5s for me. One with their suggested minor change in density and one with my original. While I ended up choosing my original I was grateful for another set of eyes and for the collaborative experience. The Panda Technician then walked me through the differences of several types of paper, several levels of gloss, and suggested one type of pint (the gliclee) which would age better after contact with UV.At Costco I asked 3 or 4 questions and got “I have no idea” as answers, before the irritated twenty something literally walked away.Costco likely has a Fuji Frontier printer which is the gold standard in massive and massively expensive printers. I have no idea what kind of printers the Panda folks have but they offer several types of print from different printers. The proof is in the puddin’ though right?The prints from Costco were really good. Full stop. The glossy is really really nice and shows off the 3D like rendition that my fucking awesome Zeiss lens with witch the photo was made. The Print from Panda Lab was a little bit better. The photo I printed covers really wide dynamic and color range. When side by side. it is clear that the Print renders the color in a slightly more pleasing way but most importantly the darker areas of the photo reveal more details by, say, 10%. Is that a big deal? Sometimes. In this particular example it’s a huge deal because there is real drama in the shadows.So. Where will I order my prints from in the future? Honestly it depends. There may be some lower dynamic range shots that I know are bang on that I will have printed at Costco. I will certainly continue to experiment with printing there. It’s just too inexpensive not to and in certain situations it will probably be fine. That said, If I really want too put my best foot forward, which I almost constantly do, Its Panda all the way. I also really appreciate all the feedback and advice I can get from the serious artisans at Panda.

I decided that since I was “getting out there” more with my photography I’d try submitting to some news agencies. I decided to start small. I submitted a recent sunset pic to my local news blog. http://westseattleblog.com/ and they published it!!

It can be viewed here or see the shot in all its high rez gallery here on badlybent

I am still at a stage with photography where it is good for me to focus on fundamentals. Over the coming months I will have a focus for a given period of time. My focus for the next month will be compositional minimalism. That is, I endeavor to keep non essential elements out of the composition. photos to follow.